Supreme Court won't hear challenge to get-tough immigration policy

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Raul Ramos-Matos, an undocumented immigrant, is charged with driving drunk in Palmer Township. He was denied a first-offender program that would lessen his risk of deportation, under a policy of Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. Attorney for Raul Ramos-Matos

Raul Ramos-Matos, an undocumented immigrant, is charged with driving drunk in Palmer Township. He was denied a first-offender program that would lessen his risk of deportation, under a policy of Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. Attorney for Raul Ramos-Matos (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli’s get-tough approach to undocumented immigrants has survived another legal challenge, after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal that questioned whether a longtime policy of his is discriminatory.

Northampton County, like counties across the state, runs a first-offender program that annually allows hundreds of defendants charged with minor crimes to avoid the consequences of a criminal conviction.

But for years, Morganelli has barred undocumented immigrants from benefiting from Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition, arguing their immigration status shows they don’t respect the law.

This year, that policy was challenged by attorneys for Raul Ramos-Matos, a 40-year-old Phillipsburg man who holds dual citizenship in Peru and Spain. Charged with driving drunk in Palmer Township, Matos asked the courts to order his admittance into ARD, saying it is unconstitutional to deny him because of his immigration status.

The ... Supreme Court now has affirmed the ability of myself and other [district attorneys] to deny ARD to people who are in the country illegally.— District Attorney John Morganelli

But last week, the state Supreme Court declined to hear that question, issuing a one-sentence order that Morganelli said settles the matter and vindicates his approach. The decision echoes a similar denial issued in June by the Superior Court.

“The Superior Court and the Supreme Court now has affirmed the ability of myself and other DAs to deny ARD to people who are in the country illegally,” Morganelli said. “This issue wasn’t worthy of review by either of the appellate courts of Pennsylvania, so I think this establishes that I was on pretty firm footing here.”

Jose Campos, an attorney for Matos, said the fight is not over. He downplayed the breadth of the Supreme Court’s decision, saying that in declining to the hear the case, the justices left the overarching question for another day.

“They did not decide the issue of whether the district attorney’s policy is unconstitutional or illegal, which it is,” Campos said.

Procedurally, Matos’ case was on an unusual footing. At the county court level in March, Matos lost his bid to be admitted into ARD, with Judge Stephen Baratta upholding Morganelli’s policy. But in a rare move, Baratta allowed Matos to immediately pursue an appeal, finding the issue involved an important question of law to which “there is substantial ground for difference of opinion.”

Campos said Matos’ drunken-driving case will now proceed, and if he is convicted, he will be able to raise his legal challenge again and have it heard at appeal.

That’s unlawful and people should care. People should care about discrimination wherever and whenever it happens.— ACLU attorney Golnaz Fakhimi on denying ARD to undocument immigrants

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania had urged the Supreme Court to take up the case, calling Morganelli’s policy “a gross abuse of discretion” that unlawfully discriminates. The ACLU said the issue had broad importance, with the group receiving reports in other counties of defendants denied ARD based on immigration status, including in Lancaster, Chester, Delaware and Monroe.

Golnaz Fakhimi, an immigration rights attorney with the ACLU, called the Supreme Court’s order disappointing but said it is not the last word. She said she expects further court battles, as defendants in other counties also pursue challenges.

She called the practice “very prevalent” and said it runs against civil rights protections.

“That’s unlawful and people should care,” Fakhimi said. “People should care about discrimination wherever and whenever it happens.”

State law gives prosecutors broad discretion over who to recommend for ARD, under which defendants see their records expunged provided they complete probation and pay court costs. For immigrants, the program is especially attractive, since the lack of a criminal conviction may lessen their chances of deportation.

Morganelli, who has long been outspoken on illegal immigration, casts his stance as one of law and order. He says his policy is not about race or ethnicity, but rather whether a defendant has followed the law in coming to the country.

The appeal was one of two fronts that Matos has fought as he faces deportation. His lawyers also charge the district attorney’s office orchestrated an illegal arrest of their client in March, when he was taken into custody at a court hearing in Easton on his drunken-driving case and turned over to immigration agents.

Challenges to Matos’ arrest are pending in the federal court system. The Third Circuit Court of Appeals stayed Matos’ deportation, and has scheduled arguments in his immigration case for December.

Matos remains in York County Prison, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement detains those from the area who face immigration violations. Campos, his lawyer, said his legal team is hoping to see him released on bond.

Matos came to the United States from Spain in February 2014 under the Visa Waiver Program, which allows travelers from America’s closest allies to visit for up to 90 days without a visa. Matos overstayed that threshold, and was working as a machine operator at a manufacturing company in Warren County, N.J., when he was charged after police officers in Palmer pulled him over in August 2017 with a blood alcohol level of twice the legal limit, according to court records.